I was in the math library today, looking for a casual reading book on Mathematics in Movies (more on that later), when I stumbled upon a gem of a book called “Against Infinity: An anthology of contemporary mathematical poetry.” This is full of amazing poetry- some of which I will share with you.

Squares by Catherine M. Lynch

Perhaps no more.
It is even now; all finished off
Not rounded, but squared away: something stolid about it.

Even and square,
Much better than when we started out,
Less apt to spin on its axis, break apart, or fall in love.

I love square things. Square numbers are great. They are a stable fixed point pinning down the integers are regular intervals marching off to infinity. I also think about squaring things when I dance. I consider a tap dance step to be “square” when it takes four counts of 8 to complete. It sounds finished, stable, and stolid. But who thinks about squares falling in love…?